The meaning of ghatikāas a time measure of twenty-four
minutes is well known throughout India. But the fact that it also denoted an
educational institution in ancient and medieval Karnataka is not that known. Ghatikāsthānās
were institutions of higher
learning that flourished in South India, and were supported by individuals as
well as public bodies, that gave liberal grants for their development.

The word ghatikāis derived from the Sanskrit original root, ghat,
which means, "to take place" or "form". Another term derived from this
root isghatā,
which is used by Vatsyayana in the sense of a religious assembly. The term ghatikā, according to Kielhorn, stood for an establishment of holy and learned men and
Barnett interpreted it as a meeting place or hall of learned and godly men, and
thus connected it with ghatigeor ghaligewhich meant an ‘assembly'. The word may also be translated as
‘religious center' or as an ‘institution of knowledge' as well. But we
have positive evidence, in a few inscriptions, of ghatikāsbeing institutions of advanced learning in medieval
Karnataka.

The earliest mention of a ghatikāin this context can be found in
Kakusthavarman's Talagunda inscription dating back to the early 4th
century C.E. This document mentions a ghatikāat Kanchi, which in those days was a big cultural center. Mayurasharman,
the founder of the royal family of the Kadambas, went to this ghatikāwith his guru, eager to study “the whole sacred lore” 1.It is likely that no such institution existed in Karnataka in those days,
but we find numerous ghatikāsflourishing in later centuries.

K.L. Kamat/Kamat's PotpourriA Time-keeping Volunteer at the Ghatika

The earliest example of a ghatikā
in Karnataka can be found in the Dharwad district at Kalas, then known as
Kadiyuru. An inscription from 929-930 C.E. describes students who studied
grammar, polity, literature, history, logic, and politics and also wrote
commentaries on them.

Almost all the ghatikāsfound so
far belong to the time of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyana. These were at
Morigere, Nagai, Sudi, Hotturu, Tumbula, Rayabag, Puligere, Henjeru, Kadlewada,
Henjeru and Rayabag2. These were mahāghatikasthānāsor big ghatikās .
Pottiyuru (present day Hotturu in Dharwad district) was akhilaghatikasthana , or a universal ghatikā3. Others are simply mentioned as ghatikasthāna,
galige , or ghateyashāle . The only inscriptions that give a clear picture
about the workings of a ghatikāare those in the village of Nagai in Chitapur taluk of Gulburga district, which contained three big institutions of higher
education4. One of the three inscriptions was connected with the
Traipurushadeva temple and mentions a ghatikāand a shāle(school) as well. The second is associated with the Madhusudana temple
and refers to a matha . Since it
mentions two members of its establishment as ghatiyārasor
officers of a ghatikā, there is
likely to have been a link between the two. The third inscription associated
with the Rameshvara temple is incomplete, but mentions four hundred students.
There were remains of a big building which had an outer courtyard with rooms on
either side and a big doorway which led into a spacious hall that contained a
number of stone benches serving as seats, as per Hyderabad Archaeological survey
reports. (Vol. VII). According to C. R. Krishnamacharlu who edited these
inscriptions, these were ruins of an 11th century educational
institution. It is not clear whether these were remains of a fourth institution
or one of the three mentioned above.It
is possible that all the three schools were part of one big institution, having
about a thousand students living in three different campuses, resembling bigger
universities like that of Nalanda in north India. Details of the organization of
the three campuses or schools from the records give an inkling of the
establishment known as the ghatikā.

Madhusudana, an officer of
Trailokya malla, Chalukya, constructed this ghatikā . The expression ghatikasthānamenippāshāle (“a school named ghatikasthāna”),
shows that the shāle in ancient
and medieval times represented an institution of higher learning, in the same
way the word “School” is used in “London School of Economics” or
“Harvard Business School” today. Traipurusha represented the triune of
Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara, which symbolized the Hindu Trinity. In such
schools, holy books pertaining to all sects were studied, including the
Buddhist, Jaina, tantra, Shākta and Chārwaka scriptures, exemplifying
the egalitarian outlook of true spiritual education. We find Traipurusha deva
temples with schools (shāle) attached to them in other parts of Karnataka also. But
only in Nagai, a ghatikasthānawas attached to a Traipurusha temple.

In this ghatikātwo hundred scholars studied the
Vedas and fifty-two studied the shāstras.
Three teachers of each group comprised the main teaching staff along with a
librarian (saraswatibhandāriga)
and an officer (ghatikāprahāri
). These shāstra teachers taught
Bhatta-darshana, Nyasa and Prabhakara-darshana, which are all well known works
on philosophy containing the commentaries of Bhatta (Kumarila Bhatta) and
Prabhakara. Boarding and lodging was provided for all staff and students and
land was allocated for their maintenance5.

This temple school had an imposing
collection of buildings with lofty patios, gate halls and compound walls. It had
a nātyashālāor theater in its premises. There was a three-storied entrance
tower (mûruneleyābāgiluvādā
). A spacious building was also built for the convenience of the inmates
pursuing their religious observances. Inmates included ascetics of the order of
Ekadandi, Tridaneli, Hamsa and Paramahansa, along with the snātakas.
A school existed here for the study of the Rig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharvana
Vedas with their several thousand shākhās(branches) and Vedāngas. The local inscriptions mention that
the staff at the ghatikāincluded Bhattopādhyās,
Brahmapuribhattas, Puranabhattas, stonecutters, artisans,
songstresses, drummers, and kapinaghatiyārs or security officers. Of these, the ghatikāprahari
of Traipurushaghatika and kapinaghaliyara(or ghatiyāra
) are worth studying further, because they shed light on the functioning of the ghatikāat Nagai6.

Since both of these received
emoluments equal to that of a teacher, they could not be considered equivalent
to just watchmen or timekeepers, as translated by Sri C. R. Krishnamacharlu, who
edited and translated the Nagai inscriptions. At the Vikramashila University,
which also flourished in the 11th century, there were officers given
the unpretentious title of dvarapanditas
or gatekeepers, but they were the guardians of scholarship of the university.
They were most erudite scholars and admitted only the ablest into the
university, after a thorough test. The ghatikāwas a seat of high learning and its
guardians may have performed functions similar to those of dvārapanditas of Vikramashila University.

This ghatikāprahāri
or watchman (or striker of the hour-bell) received emoluments equal to those of
the teachers. It is possible that he was given greater responsibilities than the
mere striking of a bell every hour. In Nalanda, we learn that every activity was carried on according to the striking of a
gong. In Nagai there were more than a thousand students, and a similar system
might have prevailed. With time keeping personnel and a librarian on its staff,
Nagai was indeed an important place of higher learning.

The last inscription of the place
mentions a certain Mahadevarasa and his charities in Nagai. He established a
school for four hundred students. Of these one hundred studied Kavisunu (Sukraniti),
one hundred studied the writings of Vyasa(particularly, the Mahabharata) and one hundred studied the works of Manu (the Dharmashāstra)
7. The damaged condition of this record does not enable us to determine
what the remaining fourth division of hundred students studied.

After understanding the details of
the working of a ghatikā(as
explained above) we may draw certain inferences.

The ghatikāwas invariably attached to a
temple. Other ghatikāsmentioned in different places were
also attached to temples. A matha,
also an educational institution with dormitory facilities invariably existed in
the same premises. For instance, the Madhusudana temple in Nagai had a matha
. In Sudi a matha and ghatikā
flourished together.

Agrahara and brahmapuri,
which were other residential, educational institutions, also co-existed with ghatikasthānās.
Since the inscriptions at Nagai speak of provisions made for teachers, namely-- Brahmapuribhatta and Puranabhatta and other employees of the temple,
we may surmise that students and staff lived in the temple premises and studied
in the ghatikāof the Traipurushadeva
temple.

An agrahāra and shāle
were also interconnected at times, irrespective of whether or not the shāle
was called a ghatikasthānā. The institution of Salotgi of the time of
Rashtrakuta Krishna (950 CE) was an agrahāra
and shāle. It was very big, with
twenty-seven well-furnished dormitories, where students from different lands
lived and studied. Thus it is clear that the shāle was an
institution of higher learning and at times was identical with the ghatikā,
although what made a shāleinto a ghatikāis not exactly known.

Students in the ghatikāwere referred to as mānis in a number of inscriptions at Morigere, Sudi, Nagai,
Tumbula, etc. All these inscriptions contain references to grants of land made
by benevolent patrons to cover the needs of students. Since the ghatikā
was a place where only merited students were admitted, a student fortunate
enough to enter and excell himself at a ghatikā
appears to have been
known as a ghatikasāhasa. It is
interesting to note that "ghatikāsāhasā"is also identified with the word “ghaisāsa”
. Today “Ghaisas” is a familiar surname among Maharashtrian Brahmins as also
“Ghalisasa” and "Ghalisa".

His Holiness, the late Jagadguru
Shri Sankaracharya of Kamakoti Pitham in a learned article had brought out the
importance of ghatikāsthānas
, which to him were the Taxilas of south India. He quoted the commentary of
Bhatta Someshwara on Kumarilabhatta's Tantravartika to the Purvamimamsa to
explain the very high standard of learning maintained in ghatikāsthānas .

Slips of paper containing extracts
from each of the four vedas were
placed inside a pot (ghaţa ). To
test the proficiency of a student in the veda
studied by him, a piece of paper from the pot was taken out at random, and the
student was directed to recite fully the extract mentioned on it. In this way,
students were tested in the ghatikā8.

From this explanation, it is clear
that a very high standard in vedic
knowledge was maintained in a ghatikāwhere, with the help of the system
of pieces of paper in a pot, a student was tested on several occasions, often
without prior warning. Naturally this mode of testing helped the student
establish a complete mastery of a vedā
or vedānga . The Jagadguru has
also listed the subjects taught in ghatikāsthāns
, which besides vedaand vedānga , included purāna
, mimāmsā , nyāya , dharmashātras
, the grammars, epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayanaetc.

Thus it can be summarized that a ghatikā
in medieval times was an
institution of higher learning which had the
following characteristics, some of which may be easily identified in any modern
university, namely a large number of students, liberal endowments, a high
standard of scholarship, a fully stocked library and a detailed timetable that
governed all activity.

The institution of the ghatikā
existed
in medieval Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat as well. Although now extinct, some terms
obviously connected with the ghatikāare still in vogue in Kannada, spoken today in Karnataka. For instance,
the terms “ghatānughati' and “ghattiga”are used to denote an intellectual giant, and the commencement ceremony
(or convocation) of a university is known as ghatikōtsava
. The survival of these words attests to the influence the institution exerted,
long after the actual institution went out of existence. This influence was not
merely academic; it was also spiritual and social. An inscription specifies that
the ghatikā was both a supporter
of dharmaand an abode of worldly enjoyment.

Itsing,
the Chinese monk had noticed water clock maintained at Nalanda and young
boys who were engaged to strike gongs. Itsing, p. 84, and Sukumar
Dutt. Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India, London 1962, p. 335.